[TenTec] Re: Paragon II

[Ken Brown]

  Hi all,

I have recently purchased a Paragon II and have been doing some basic checks
to see whether is fully functional. It is not putting out a full 100 
watts in CW mode
on the higher bands. I wonder if this is typical. Would an adjustment to 
the ALC
on the second mixer board give me full power on 15 meters and up without
causing trouble on the other bands where it already puts out 100 watts CW?

The measurements below were made using a Bird 43 wattmeter with a 100H
(100 watt 2-30 MHz) element, into a 50 ohm termination that is good well 
into
the UHF range.

Of course the AM carrier output should be controlled to less than 50% so 
that
DSB voice peaks do not go nonlinear. It almost seems like the CW power is
also being held down to around (but not exactly) the AM carrier level on
15, 12, and 10 meters.


Band/FM pwr max  /CW pwr FM adj to100 w / CW pwr max /AM pwr FM adj to100

160           >100        /                   70                   /    
     78          /       42
80             >100        /                   78                   /   
   >100         /       42
40             >100        /                   78                   /    
    100         /       46
30             >100        /                   75                   /   
       96         /        43
20             >100        /                   80                   /  
      100         /        44
17             >100        /                   80                   /   
       95         /        44
15                98          /    can't get 100 W FM    /          58  
       / 52 Max (FM at 98 W)
12             >100         /                  44                   /   
      44         /          44
10             >100         /                  50                   /   
      50         /          44

As you can see from the data, the radio CAN produce close enough to 100 
watts on
every band. However something is limiting the CW power output to 
significantly less
than 100 watts on 15 meters and up. I wonder if this is "normal".

I would appreciate hearing from owners of Paragon II. Have you observed 
similar
behavior? Is this a common problem? Is there an easy fix? By easy I mean 
other
than sending it to Ten-Tec.

Ken N6KB


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